Inside the auction venue.
It was packed with distinguished guests.
People were coming and going, making it extremely lively.
After a group of dancers took the stage and performed a beautiful dance,
the auction officially began.
The auctioneer walked quickly onto the stage.
He spoke pleasantries to the guests below.
"Welcome, guests, to our Jialing Auction House. Your presence truly brings honor to our venue!"
"I believe that before coming here, everyone has already heard about the items in this auction."
"Then I won't waste any more words."
"The auction officially begins!"
"Please welcome the first auction item."
As his voice fell,
several beautiful female staff members pushed a small cart onto the stage.
They then removed the long cloth covering the cart.
An agate stone with a mix of red, blue, and green appeared in everyone's sight.
"The first item is—the Three-colored Agate!"
"As everyone should know, ordinary agate stones only have one color. Agate stones with two colors are considered extremely rare."
"And this Three-colored Agate is the best of the best."
"The starting price is one hundred thousand gold coins! Each bid increment is two thousand gold coins!"
Many wealthy people couldn't wait to raise their signs and began bidding.
However, a small portion of the people present
remained motionless.
Because the items they wanted to bid on had not yet appeared.
They hadn't come here for anything else this time.
It was precisely for that batch of munitions.
As time passed, the auction soon reached its halfway point.
Inside the VIP box.
Jin Mian looked at the items being auctioned on stage.
If it wasn't some precious gem, it was a Star Luo cat-girl captive.
It wasn't interesting at all.
"Forget it, I shouldn't waste any more time."
"The sooner I find light-attribute materials, the sooner I can go find Xue'er."
He got up to leave the box.
But as he reached the door,
the next item caught his attention.
"The next item is somewhat special."
"Guests, please put on these special glasses first."
After the auctioneer finished speaking, he waved his hand.
Rows of hostesses brought the special glasses and delivered them to each guest.
Immediately after,
the staff brought up a small box
and handed it to the auctioneer.
The auctioneer took the box and put on his glasses.
Facing the crowd, he said,
"Everyone, for this seventeenth item, our auction house has named it—the Shining Crystal!"
After saying that,
he opened the box.
In an instant, a dazzling glare suddenly bloomed like a miniature sun.
It illuminated the entire venue brightly.
Jin Mian's figure had already disappeared from the doorway; instead, he was leaning against the glass.
His eyes were fixed on the item inside the box.
It was a palm-sized, diamond-shaped crystal.
Its entire body was golden.
Furthermore,
he also felt a massive amount of light-attribute energy from within the crystal.
"This crystal was found by our venue half a month ago in an underground mine within the Tianming Mountains."
"According to expert appraisal, this item is priceless!"
"The starting price is ten thousand gold coins! Each bid increment is five hundred gold coins!"
As the auctioneer's voice fell,
the guests below began to whisper among themselves.
"Ten thousand gold coins? Is this a robbery?"
"I think this auction house has gone crazy for money. A broken glowing crystal, and they actually have the nerve to ask for such a high price. I wouldn't even want it if they gave it to me for free."
"Exactly. With ten thousand gold coins, I'd rather buy a night-luminescent pearl; that's what you call something valuable."
Clearly,
these people didn't think much of the crystal.
But Jin Mian, inside the box,
was currently looking at the golden, Shining Crystal through the window.
He was almost drooling.
"What a treasure."
"I didn't expect that after searching for light-attribute materials for so long, I would actually encounter one here."
"As long as I can buy this crystal, then I only need to find light-attribute energy to start crafting the Emperor Battle Armor."
"And the price is very cheap, only ten thousand gold coins."
Jin Mian glanced at the bidding price and the guests around him who had no interest in the crystal.
He was overjoyed.
He immediately pressed the button next to his seat.
Seeing that no one was bidding, the auctioneer felt a bit awkward for a moment.
Just as he was planning to have the shill he'd prepared raise a sign,
he heard the bell.
He hurriedly swung his gavel: "The guest in VIP Box No. 1 bids ten thousand five hundred gold coins. Is there any other bid?"
Just as Jin Mian thought the treasure was about to be his,
a coarse voice came from the hall.
"I bid eleven thousand gold coins!" A burly old man with white hair and beard raised his sign.
The auctioneer hurriedly shouted: "This old gentleman bids eleven thousand gold coins. Is there anyone with a higher bid?"
Hearing this,
Jin Mian looked through at his competitor.
"I wondered who it was; so it's that old fellow Tai Tan."
"It seems the Strength Clan has become quite wealthy in the last two years."
"But to compete with me, Jin Mian, in financial strength, you're not qualified enough."
To avoid wasting time,
he directly found a staff member.
He bid twenty thousand gold coins; he wanted this crystal.
After the staff member heard this,
they ran toward the auction scene as fast as they could.
Seeing that the guest in VIP Box No. 1 hadn't made a move for a while,
the auctioneer was about to drop the gavel.
But then he saw the staff member jogging over.
They whispered to him that the guest in VIP Box No. 1 had directly increased the bid to twenty thousand gold coins.
Hearing this,
the auctioneer thought to himself.
What great luck to encounter such a rich person with more money than sense.
Then he said again: "The guest in VIP Box No. 1 bids twenty thousand. Is there anyone with a higher price?"
As soon as these words were spoken,
the crowd couldn't help but start discussing.
Who was this person with a screw loose, actually spending twenty thousand gold coins to buy a piece of glowing junk?
"Grandpa, we only brought fifty thousand gold coins this time," Tai Long said weakly from the side.
Tai Tan was also a bit surprised.
He didn't expect someone to actually compete with him for this crystal.
And they even directly increased the price to twenty thousand gold coins.
He had come to the auction this time to buy that batch of munitions.
Some time ago,
he had occasionally heard about this divine weapon called a 'gun' from an old friend's disciple.
As one of the three Divine Craftsmen, he naturally didn't believe it.
But the other party actually took out a weapon and demonstrated it in front of him.
After seeing the power of the gun,
Tai Tan was completely dumbfounded.
Just as he wanted to take a good look at how this gun was made,
he didn't expect the other party to be quite cunning.
After the demonstration, they immediately put the gun away and changed the subject.
This made him so anxious that his heart felt itchy.
Not long ago, he heard that a batch of munitions would be auctioned in Jialing City.
So he scraped together everything he had and came here with fifty thousand gold coins, wanting to buy a few.
The reason he wanted to buy this crystal
was also out of curiosity.
After hearing Tai Long's words, Tai Tan shook his head: "Forget it, forget it. It's just a crystal. It's better to spend the money on the munitions."
...
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